We live in an age when words like ‘austerity’ and ’spending cuts’ have become deeply rooted in our everyday vocabulary. Not one day passes by that we are not reminded of the gloomy economic reality or the high probability of another economic downturn. Now more than ever we need to get our finances in order and do more with less. From government to industries, organizations are taking notice and are looking for better solutions.

I was reminded of this as I was reading an op-ed from Vivek Kundra, the former government CIO, in the New York Times. Now a Harvard fellow, Kundra is credited with breaking the mold of wasteful government IT spending practices and outlining a fast track strategy for government reform.

Under his auspices in December 2010, the federal government, not necessarily known for agility when it comes to IT spending,  adopted a 25-point plan aimed at reducing government wasteful spending and focus on ‘lighter, readily available technologies,’ thus reducing the burden on us, the US taxpayers.  One solution: adoption of cloud technologies.

“The budget crisis will accelerate the move toward cloud services. Governments, businesses and consumers all have a lot to gain, but not everyone will have an equal say at the table. Public and private organizations that preserve the status quo of wasteful spending will be punished, while those that embrace the cloud will be rewarded with substantial savings and 21st-century jobs,” says Kundra in the New York Times.

One could not agree more with this statement. The ‘grand design’ approaches of the past characterized by massive deployments schedules, large capital expenditures, high human capital cost and upgrades every so often should stay in the past where they belong. Organizations should no longer rely on rigid and proprietary solutions when so many cost efficient and effective solutions already exist.

Many organizations have taken great strides to improve efficiencies by deploying cloud technologies, resulting in more efficient demand sharing across their infrastructure assets.  Many are still yet to make that next step. The cloud acts as the “Great Equalizer” and has had a disruptive effect on almost all industries and verticals. So let’s summarize the most obvious pros of having a cloud solution:

• It’s Economical: The cloud makes traditional large CAPEX investments largely unnecessary, replacing them instead with a predictable pricing model.
• It’s Agile: Gone are the long procurement and certification processes, in are the rapidly deployable go-to-market solutions.
• It is Flexible: Organizations that may experience fluctuations in service demand are now simply able to add or subtract capacity quickly and efficiently.
• It’s Secure: The rate of adoption of the cloud is steadily accelerating, even among some of its greatest detractors in the past including government, financial services and insurance..
• It’s here to stay. Unlike some other technology blips of the past, cloud computing is not merely a passing fad. As a matter of fact, Gartner predicts that cloud computing will be a $149 billion industry by 2015.

So what is your cloud strategy? Are you ready to embrace the cloud revolution and reap the benefits of a fully scalable solution?

We can help. With the Pega Cloud suite, and our public-sector focused solution, you can focus on delivering the critical solutions that your organization needs quickly, reliably and securely, with minimal IT involvement.. With Pega Cloud, we offer 100% portability - you’re never ‘locked in’ one solution over another.  You can develop and test on Pega Cloud and move it on-premise, or you can move your on-premise system onto Pega Cloud – we leave the choice to you.